Pardon
by Kalen
Summary: The ESUN government is deadly serious about prosecuting war crimes. Everyone is affected, the possibility of execution and various other penalties are looming. How do Preventers and the Gundam pilots cope in the time up to and proceeding an amnesty hearin
1. Accusation

**Mars Base, March 25 A.C. 197**

Noin went through the data at the main terminal, dumping info onto disks and handing them out to the various officers waiting for messages from home.

"Anything for us?" Zechs asked when she was nearly done.

"Not sure…" she murmured, turning to give one of the younger Preventers her disk.

"Thanks." The girl smiled brightly.

"No problem, kid." Noin returned the smile before returning to the main transmission. She felt guilty for the younger ones assigned to the Mars Base; of all of them, they probably suffered from homesickness the most.

Zechs read over her shoulder, arm settling around her waist as she finished sorting.

"Here," Noin said. "There's something from your sister, I got something from Sally and…Lady Une wrote to both of us." Surprise registered on her face. When she had the time, Lady Une would write to Noin on occasion, but as of yet never to Zechs.

"Would you like to see that one now?" he queried.

"Sure, why not…?"

The message opened itself. Lady Une's face appeared on the screen, looking tired and overworked. To be expected, Noin thought wryly. "Noin, Zechs." Her image nodded. "Good to see you both. You're most likely wondering why I'm speaking to you now…I'm afraid it's a matter of grave concern." Noin was immediately worried. "Recently the executive government has been…talking. About prosecuting war crimes, from the height of the Federation to the most recent war; apparently they're serious.

"There've been plans for general amnesty hearings, there's a present four-delay for people from the Mars Base to send cases arguments… "I've enclosed the charges levied against both of you, as well as I. I thought you should know what I was going to have to face should these hearings be unsuccessful, one of you would have to help take over.

"It took a lot, but there's an agreement that I will take Mariemaia's charges as well, should there be any at the end. Quite frankly, it's almost guaranteed I will be executed…" Lady Une stopped, shook her head. "I wouldn't mind, seeing as I deserve it, except now I have Mariemaia to take care of. Noin, you have some serious charges as well; Zechs, I trust you know the extent of yours. I hope this turns out for the best; goodbye."

"Dear God…" Noin stammered, caught entirely off-guard. Zechs was silent at her side, but his arm tightened around her and betrayed his anxiety. "What the hell do we do now?"

+++

**L1 Cluster's capitol, March 24**

Relena shut off the television set in a fit of anger, turning away and slamming her hand down hard on a stack of papers sitting on her desk. A few flittered off, one even left through the open window. She was too upset to care.

"That could have been important," a low voice commented.

Her head snapped up, relaxing only slightly when she recognized the voice's source. "Heero. What are you doing here?"

He looked nearly imperceptibly surprised at Relena's blunt greeting. "I assume you heard the news."

"Yes, I did," she gritted out. "I knew about it before this, I just…never thought they would go through with it. They have as much to lose as-as-"

Her voice broke and she looked out the window, burning fury still in the former princess's expression.

"How bad is it?" Heero asked quietly, standing next to her to look out the bay window of the suite.

"My brother could be executed," Relena whispered, nails biting into her palm to keep from crying. "Lady Une as well…possibly you. The rest of the pilots face much time in jail, Noin and just about everyone else fall into that same category."

"I see…" he was silent after that, now realizing why she was so angry. Having nearly everyone you knew face those harsh fates would be enough to upset anyone. The accusations against him were of no matter personally; he would not argue against anything they would levy against him. He deserved the punishment…but Relena didn't. "Would you be able to stop this?"

"There are others who want this to halt as well…" Relena hesitated. "A general amnesty hearing was part of the deal, I made sure of that. But beyond speaking there…not at all. I can't do anything about this."

"They have to wait for responses for people on the Mars Base…the transmission rate is rather slow between planets. Would that be of any help?"

"No. In fact, it will only give the Tribunal more time to place people who are more likely to vote against the amnesty on their panels."

"Could it work the other way?"

"I doubt it…Heero, I'm helpless in this. No matter how much political power I have, I can't stop something this big. These people have paid, most of them have died…it isn't just people I care about would suffer through this, it's that I know it's not just me. What if it starts all over again?"

"Relena…" It disturbed Heero that she was correct; she was in truth helpless. She would be viewed as too bound by familial and friendship ties to be "impartial." As if it were possible in this convoluted Sphere of politics.

"I truly hope this isn't the end of it."

+++

**Mars Base, March 26**

It hit her hard this was going to be less of a trial and more of a reaffirmation of guilty parties. Society had ignored the crimes that had gone on; they had lived in a war-torn Earth Sphere for so long they forgot justice could be wrought. Now it was coming up again; it could potentially re-devastate Earth and the colonies…or bring a hard-fought closure to pain many colonists and Earth-born people had felt for decades.

Noin bit her lip as she read over her charges - 31 in all. It was a small amount, considering her twelve years in OZ. Seven had been spent as an officer, and three as a top official. There were some things listed she had long tried to forget, and nearly had…until then.

Work on the base had halted; most everyone had received charges in one form or another, the majority charged as a group, as Sally and the medical branch of the Alliance had been. The same was not true of the 14 surviving OZ top officials, which included Lady Une, Noin, and Zechs. They were charged as individuals; most of them had committed serious crimes.

A good deal of the OZ soldiers would be lacking the defense of being children coerced into military service; the Federation had made living situations so awful joining Specials, or the Alliance, was a quite viable alternative. Noin knew she had been treated relatively well as a child in Specials/OZ; it helped that Zechs was known by an influential family - the Bartons.

"At the time of the trials, we'll have to go back to Earth," Zechs commented quietly. He was seated across from her on a table in the deserted mess hall. "The trials will be held in Luxembourg and Brussels."

"I know," Noin responded in kind. "Some of these…Lady Une was right, she would be executed if they tried her…she doesn't deserve this, neither do you. Horrible things happen in war, I understand all of us did things we shouldn't have, but still…"

"Noin, I stand a good chance of being executed as well." Zechs appeared tired as he looked at her, hand closing tightly over hers. "Particularly with the charges from White Fang…it's almost as certain as Lady Une's. Possibly more so."

"Zechs, I don't want to think about that." She shook her head fervently. "The amnesty hearings haven't been conducted yet. These trials could be waived yet."

"It's unlikely," he said bluntly. "There were others with even more serious charges, if it were possible."

Noin looked away, straightening the sleeve of her Preventers jacket in an attempt to keep from meeting his eyes. "Some of the allegations against me…they're quite serious, Lady Une was correct. While I most likely won't face execution, it's still a good deal of time in prison."

"Should this come to trial, you can leave most of the accusations," Zechs informed her pointedly. "Many of them were joint for us, as I technically outranked you in most simply say they occurred under coercion."

"No, dear," Noin stated firmly. "I'll never do that. I committed these crimes just as voluntarily as you did."

"Noin-" Zechs started to argue.

"I'm not going to talk about this." She looked away again, a mixture of anger and guilt in her eyes. "It's bad enough as it is, we don't have to be so pessimistic."

+++

**Preventers Headquarters, March 27 early morning**

Lady Une rubbed at her eyes, blinking in an attempt to see her computer screen clearly. The television was on mute next to it as it usually was. It helped her concentrate not to have noise; at any rate it was inconvenient to have to continuously switch off the sound on various items to speak on the phone, et cetera.

At the moment she wasn't thinking particularly clearly; she wasn't even sure what day it was. She'd lost her watch at one point, she wasn't sure when. The harried work and public statements had made her lose her sense of direction and time.

"Mother?" Mariemaia's timid voice carried over the office. The redheaded child pushed herself up to Lady Une's desk, head tipped curiously.

"Marie-chan." Lady Une's voice was dull as she acknowledged her adopted daughter. "I thought you went home."

It had quickly become custom for Mariemaia to stay at Preventers Headquarters after school. Lady Une allowed her to do so only because she understood the child wouldn't be happy alone at home, with only the cross maid for company. Normally Une would bring her home; it reminded her she should be there at a relatively decent hour, at least a few times a week. The past few days, however, had not been following that regime.

"You never told me to," Mariemaia responded easily. "It's three in the morning you know."

Lady Une gave her a mild look. "You know you're supposed to go home if I'm working too late."

She shrugged. "I didn't want to. I took a nap here, you can't really complain."

"Your headmistress will if she discovers I've been letting you stay around an intelligence agency's office 'til odd hours in the morning. You don't want to have the orphanage come and take you, do you?"

Lady Une picked up Mariemaia from her wheelchair, cradling the girl in her lap. Mariemaia snuggled into her, glad for the contact. She frequently received the impression Dekim had never hugged the girl, for a good while Mariemaia avoided any form of touch.

"They won't. They're afraid of you," Mariemaia said calmly, head resting on Une's shoulder. "What has occurred with the Tribunal that makes you stay late so much? The amnesty hearings aren't for another three days."

She was alarmed at hearing her speak of the impending trials. "I thought I told you not to watch the news."

"They tell us to at school. You can't keep me entirely in the dark…although you have been rather effective. I still don't know what they charged you with."

_Good,_ she thought. Mariemaia was intelligent; she would understand what the penalties were immediately. Lady Une didn't want to put her through that until it was entirely unavoidable…as of yet it wasn't.

"You won't if I can help it."

"Why?"

"You're still a child, Mariemaia, no matter what Dekim did to you. These are repercussions of disregarding humanity itself during war…you'll learn about it soon enough. But not while it still affects us personally, or harshly."

Well, should we go see what everyone else is doing, or go straight to the hearings? 


	2. Dolor Belli

Notes: If the first scene sounds a bit odd, that's because it was edited to the extreme in the course of a couple hours. Thank my-friend-the-3x4-freak Mythica. ::rolls eyes:: I didn't feel like facing her Lady Une-caliber wrath (there's a reason I call her that), considering she yelled at me twice in math class for doing something related to 4xD…ah well. See, now I vented, and I don't mind leaving the scene majorly butchered. ^_^

Quasi-relevant language note: For those of you familiar with the romance languages, no, this chapter's title _does not_ mean "Beautiful Pain." It's Latin and translates to "The Grief of War." (And I actually got bellum successfully into the genitive case! This means nothing to most of you, but I'm happy. [::smirks:: Actually Kalen cheated and found a vocabulary list that had the genitive case for words on her upcoming test.)

+++

**Winner Corporation Offices, March 27, late evening**

Quatre reached over and switched on the comm, fully prepared to scold whichever of his workers had the sheer audacity to bother him when he'd all but banned communication into his office. The blonde-framed face in the unit tipped her head in amusement as the irritated look left his face.

"Dorothy. Good to see you."

"I'm certain." She dipped her head in a quick greeting. "How are you doing?"

He hadn't spoken to her in a good while, a reticent reminder he frequently neglected his "social life," or rather, lack thereof. In the past year or so Dorothy had become a good friend - a business partner after the Eve Wars, then a platonic companion. The peaceable yet sometimes flare-tempered Catalonia in front of him was a far cry from the nearly psychopathic fifteen-year-old he'd met long ago in Cinq.

"Well enough, I guess…" Quatre sighed, ran his hand through his hair. "I don't suppose there were any allegations against you?"

Dorothy laughed, the sound refreshing after the past few jaded days. "No, for all my early propensities Grandfather, Treize and Zechs kept me out of trouble."

"I see." Quatre smiled, although the pleased expression disappeared quickly. "Through my own making, my situation is quite different."

She gave him a puzzled look, then remembered. "You were on the ZERO system. Easily defensible."

"I'm not sure I want to."

"That's insane. You've already paid back the colonists many times over." Dorothy had helped with the charity ventures Quatre set up to assist L4 in general and the colonists he'd hurt in particular.

"No, I'm afraid you're incorrect in that. I can never pay back those several hundred colonists for their homes and livelihoods that I destroyed."

After all this time, Dorothy still believed in the ancient Hammurabi codes in most cases. She knew the war statutes and conventions had been there to protect people, and that was all well and good…except when they erroneously attacked the few she gave a damn about.

She nodded, slowly and reluctantly accepting. "I know I won't change your mind. But you can't exactly change mine either."

"Quatre chuckled, admiring her extreme obstinacy - no matter how many problems it caused. "As always. Goodnight, Dorothy."

"Good night."

+++

**Lady Une's residence, March 28**

Mariemaia sifted through her schoolwork, completing them with idle efficiency - all the while hiding the stack of military reports printed out from her computer. At eight she was extremely intelligent, and at the moment worried for the woman she called mother. Lady Une had expressly ordered her not to watch the news, had exempted her from anything too involved with it in school…she understood Une was only trying to protect her, but from what? She'd already seen so much, what was it that was so horrible about this…?

Her curiosity egged at her until she went against her adopted mother's wishes, digging out the charges against Lady Une, and herself. The latter were irrelevant, they wouldn't prosecute anyone below thirteen at the time of the crimes; that, at least, had already been established (it also left all OZ soldiers responsible for everything that occurred after their graduations). The former were absolutely horrifying.

Now she understood what Lady Une had unsuccessfully attempted to keep her from understanding. Should the trials go through, Mariemaia stood more than a decent chance of losing her mother for the second time. Both would be through illness - one a biological disease, the other something that had long plagued humanity. The grief of war.

A brief knock at her door alerted her to Lady Une's entrance.

"Mom," she said in a slightly anxious voice, quickly hiding the reports more thoroughly. "Why are you home this early?'

"I would think you'd be glad." Lady Une smirked slightly, ruffling Mariemaia's sleek cap of red hair. "I decided to take the rest of the day off…spontaneous, true, but work was beginning to irk me."

"Oh. Okay…I'm glad." Mariemaia, in truth, was glad, but wondered what could have possibly prompted such a "spontaneous" action. _Could it be connected to the hearings…? There's only two days left…_

She whirled as something crashed into her window, bouncing off the strengthened glass. In the movement her schoolwork was swept off the desk, along with some of the reports. Lady Une knelt to pick them up. Mariemaia helpless to stop her from reading what her "extracurricular research" had turned up.

"I see you found out…" Lady Une said it slowly, voice held carefully neutral.

"Yes, I did…" The crashing intensified, Mariemaia turned in surprise and near-fear.

"Ignore it, Mariemaia," Lady Une whispered, attention distracted from her daughter's disobedience.

"Mother, what is it?" Mariemaia was now worried. _Those are rocks…_

"Do you remember when I told you that many people still wanted me dead?"

"Yes."

"Now there are more."

+++

**An L2 Colony, March 29**

"Hilde! Oi, Hilde!" Duo yelled, looking through the apartment for his girlfriend, who had for some reason disappeared.

The silence was beginning to bother him. He went outside, looking through the scrap metal junkyard for the seventeen-year-old. Duo finally found her seated awkwardly on one of the piles of Neo-Titanium, a stack of papers in her hand.

"Hilde, why didn't you answer me?" he asked, climbing up next to her.

"Huh?" Hilde's head rose, curious. "What'd you say?"

"I was asking you where you were the past hour or so I couldn't find you," Duo replied. "C'mon, you couldn't've been out here all day…I'm not blind, y'know."

"I got a letter from my friend Stella today," she responded. "I told you about her, she left OZ about a month before I did. She's got some nasty charges, a lot worse than mine. Her unit did…differently."

"How much differently?" Duo was slightly alarmed. Stella and Hilde had had a falling out when the former left OZ, never knowing that Hilde would leave as well, a bare five weeks later. They had been in different units…the OZ units were being charged individually to make it easier to isolate the higher commands and the lower recruits that had never seen battle.

"Very. They had two…bad attacks. Civilian, she says they were told they were rebel bases. One of their commanders is dead, but the other…they're going to have a hard case of it."

"I spoke to Wufei just before I started looking for you…" Duo started hesitantly. "He said Sally's having a similar problem, her commander wasn't all that humane. They found a good lawyer who's familiar with this type of thing…maybe I can ask him to look at Stella and her unit's case too."

"That would be great, Duo." Hilde forced a smile, letting him help her climb down from the scrap heap. "I hope it can help…if the amnesty hearing fails, there won't be much time left."

+++

**Preventers Headquarters, March 30, late afternoon**

"Lady, are you sure you want to take Mariemaia to the hearing? There will be people who will do everything to stop this amnesty from occurring…" Noin watched Une stare blankly out the floor-to-ceiling window of her office, casting a worried look back at Zechs when she didn't answer. He blinked, hands shoved in his pockets.

"Lady Une?" he asked cautiously.

"Une?" Noin asked, louder than before. The woman in question snapped awake, startled as she was snapped out of her reverie.

"I'm sorry, I must have lost focus…" she looked apologetic, but still slightly confused. "You were saying?"

"I was asking if you were certain you wanted Mariemaia to accompany you to the hearing, seeing the type of people that would be there. I remember you said you were keeping her from watching the news." Noin answered her evenly, not missing a beat.

"Mariemaia of course disobeyed that order…" Lady Une shook her head, not the slightest bit amused. "She knows. I don't see the point in keeping her from being at the hearing."

Noin nodded, accepting. Zechs frowned. "It might be wiser to take extra security."

"What ever for." Une's voice was flat, the quasi-question sardonic. "Mariemaia and I wouldn't be attacked at a place so public."

Noin gave him a mild look to tell him to drop it. Lady Une's stubbornness could outlast time, and would most certainly outlast them.

"Are you two going to be at the hearing?" Lady Une queried, this time leaning against the window.

"We hope," Noin said gradually, "but we have-"

"Some other things to take care of," Zechs finished for her.

"We'll be there if we can."

Brief, true, but the next chapter's the hearing. 


	3. Tribunal

A/N: Research for this was rather difficult and hard to come by (hence the time delay; I like to be thorough), for those better versed in this subject I apologize in advance for incorrect details and proceedings, particularly the most glaringly obvious one. I am fully aware that never in the real world would such a general hearing occur. Because writing so many individual amnesty trials would be rather unfeasible in terms of fanfiction, I decided the most efficient way to do this would be to write the way I did. You'll see what I mean. ^_^

As for the triple-addition signs I use for changing scenes, if there's no bolded info after one, it means it's the same scene as the prior one with passage of time, usually given in the scene itself. 'kay?

+++

**Tribunal Headquarters (Estate in France), March 30, 8:03 p.m.**

Trowa shifted in his seat, slightly perturbed the five judges were not as of yet present. He'd left the circus temporarily to sit in at the hearing. Having to wait and perform, or worse, do nothing in the hours that would comprise the hearing would have unnerved him to no end. These hearings would determine the lives, or at the very least the next few years of the lives, of many people, Trowa included.

He glanced around, looking for a familiar face. Heero and the Foreign Minister were off to his right, closer to the front. Lady Une, the Chief of Preventers, and her daughter were in the left most of the four aisles arranged in the makeshift courthouse. Trowa considered going to speak to Quatre, but digressed when he noticed Dorothy Catalonia mouthing off to some reporters next to him. Apparently, her temper was getting the better of her that night.

No one else looked familiar, with the exception of some politicians and other notable public figures he saw infrequently on news broadcasts. Trowa settled down to wait.

+++

Relena checked her watch for the umpteenth time, irritated. Next to her, Heero tried hard not to glare at her.

"Relena, I'm fairly certain the time hasn't changed much since the last time you checked," he said, narrowly keeping the annoyance out of his voice. It was rarely that he had to deal with people, even someone he was as familiar with as Relena. This wasn't the most anxiety-free of situations, either - the judges were more than an hour late.

Another few minutes and the five-person panel entered. All the judges were old-time lawyers, curiously free of any form of charge against them, although that had most likely been arranged. The head judge, the renowned and sixty-three-year-old Christina Novellum, opened in a slightly raspy voice with thick glasses obscuring her eyes as she spoke.

"We apologize to the public for the delay. The Tribunal found it necessary to deem whether or not it was proper to hold such a general amnesty hearing," Novellum intoned. "At length we ascertained there would be far too much…political entanglement should the orders given us be averted in any manner."

Novellum was looking directly at Relena; she met the judge's gaze coolly. Heero remembered she had mentioned this very hearing was part of the deal to let the trials proceed - which would effectively circumvent them should the amnesty be granted.

If not, the prosecuting team should be none the worse for wear.

+++

**Outside the Tribunal Headquarters, 9:36 p.m.**

"The judges arrived about half an hour ago," Noin murmured softly, nearly afraid to break the silence of the area. It appeared that nearly all of the stars were visible in this semi-rural area, away from the cities and on Earth.

"They must have been arguing about whether this were even allowed," Zechs responded in similar low tones. "Relena's rather tricky when it comes to wording. They wouldn't have been able to stop it even if they had been allowed to take longer."

"Hm. Are you certain you don't want to go in?"

"Yes. But if you-"

"No, it's alright. But I'd rather be working." She smiled wryly as she continued walking past the building, a few hundred yards away from them. There was, oddly enough, a river, more of a brook really, ahead, its bank dipping conspicuously.

_She really is worried, isn't she…?_ Zechs thought, watching her cross her arms in an all-too-familiar stance that spoke of annoyance - or fear.

"It'll be okay," he assured her gently, falling into step next to her. Noin couldn't keep herself still in her anxiety.

"You always were a terrible liar, Zechs," she scoffed, mirth and admonishment both absent from her voice.

"Only to you," he responded evenly, waiting for her to say precisely what was bothering her.

"I don't know what's upsetting me so much, honestly…" Noin said softly, a tinge of depression coloring her voice. "Mostly it was hearing about hearing about the sabotage on our base, Lady Une's house being damaged by those protesters. Some of the charges against her, us - they're absolutely…" She stopped, laughed at the insanity of it all. Zechs was concerned for her mental health, in all seriousness. _No, she's held up this long, she wouldn't crack now…_

"Absolutely what, Noin?"

"Ludicrous…things that we couldn't possibly be directly responsible for, but Une would be held guilty of anyway. Such as, extreme violation of the third and fourth sections on the Convention on the Rights of a Child*, which we both received, because of all the young soldiers Specials trained, and graduated before they were legally adults…that I, and the other instructors were responsible for, in our ignorance.

"Lady Une wasn't responsible for it; hell, not even _General Catalonia_** was responsible for it! Yet she has to take the blame for a crime started so long ago she viewed it as perfectly natural, that we all did, only because she was in the unfortunate position of being the last leader of OZ…

"They're just looking for someone to blame for the loss of their children and families. I don't blame them but it's not fair to attack people with this blunt an instrument."

"In looking for justice they're causing more lack of it," Zechs surmised for her, remembering Noin's abrupt, quickly silenced and now apparently fermenting anger at a few of his charges and her own. "Only causing more lack of it…"

+++

**Inside, 9:59 p.m.**

Mariemaia bit her lip as she squirmed irritably, finally having given up on watching the speakers - at eight years old she was too short for the task. Her wheelchair was set next to the left most of the four aisles in the courthouse, Lady Une seated next to her on the hastily constructed wooden bench.

The Foreign Minister, Relena Darlian, was finishing her brief speech; Lady Une squeezed Mariemaia's hand to make the understandably agitated child stop fidgeting.

"I understand most of you believe I am biased, that I would be one to suffer most politically and emotionally should these trials to through and that most of you are aware by now I had a part to play in bringing this general trial to all. I want you to understand that I am biased.

"It should also be noted that all of you are as well, no matter what outcome you wish for. To avenge a family member, a loved one, a lost home, or to keep the same from feeling more pain all make you biased. As much as I, possibly more so depending on the situation.

"I ask you to pause and consider - do you think that what, who you wanted to protect could possibly, truly be avenged by executing, punishing the ones you want to blame? Many of these people have families now, they have lives and are important to their community. Before you vehemently demand that these charges be brought to court, meet the ones that you would have so mercilessly castigated. Then maybe you'll change your mind.

"Thank you for your time."

Lady Une clapped softly at the end of Darlian's words, a sentiment hesitantly echoed throughout the large room, crowded with as many as a thousand spectators.

"Mother?" Mariemaia asked softly, dipping the volume of her voice so others wouldn't overhear.

"What is it, Marie-chan?" Lady Une didn't look back at her for a few moments, studying the poker faces of the judges' panel before turning to Mariemaia.

"What will happen?"

"I don't know, darling. I don't think even the judges do."

+++

**Outside, 4:21 a.m.**

Noin stirred awake, immediately reminded of where they were by their surroundings. She checked her watch quickly.

"Zechs, wake up. It's nearly 4:30 in the morning."

He turned to look at her, mildly surprised. It had been just after one in the morning when he'd dozed off, on a park bench in a small area they'd find walking around. He suspected the entire area had once been a rich estate. Every once in a while there were patches of overgrown garden, like this no longer quite so cultivated park area where the river, evidently artificial, twisted around playfully. The courthouse itself was most likely a former mansion.

They had seen many people storm off in the several hours since they'd arrived, although it was still too short a time for the judges' pane to have come to a conclusion. The lights were still blazing in the seeming distance, although in reality it wasn't that far away. The dark, bleak nightscape was now beginning to lighten with the promise of dawn in an hour or so, but still offered the illusion of increased detachment.

"Oniisama!*** Noin-san!" Relena called frantically, running towards them. Heero was jogging behind her, for some reason appearing puzzled even through his usual mask of blank expression.

Noin stood, Zechs coming up next to her. "What is it?" he queried, wondering what could have made her run out if the hearing weren't complete. But if it were…

"Did the hearing complete?" Noin voiced, blinking in confusion at Relena, who was barely keeping from hysterics, underlying emotion unreadable.

"Yes," Heero informed quietly.

"It's-" Relena had a curious expression of shock on her face, shook her head. "The amnesty has…been denied."

+++

_Footnotes_

* No, I am not making this up. There is a Convention on the Rights of a Child (it's being used extensively in Rwanda right now); I wasn't able to figure out whether it was the 3rd or 4th section that held the specifics of child-soldier rights, so for the sake of the fic it's both. (I couldn't find a hard copy, just inefficient summaries.)

** General Catalonia was Treize's predecessor as the leader of OZ and Specials; he was Dorothy's father and Treize's…second cousin? I don't get family trees. Hell, I call half my distant relatives cousin for lack of any relevant knowledge.

*** Nope, not making that up either. She calls him oniisama for the greater part of the series. Scary, ne?

+++

A/N: Yes, there's an epilogue. And no, that wasn't an intentional cliffhanger. :) Well, review!


	4. Epilogue (Noin)

Well I said there would be another part, and here it is. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and FYI, I take no responsibility for those who either find me irritating or cause damage to themselves because of the high amount of death in this epilogue. Arigatou. ^_^

+++  
"Are you certain this is the end?"

"More than certain. I'm sorry…"

"Don't be. We saw it coming."  
+++

It's raining today. How fitting; the weather matches my mindset. Torrential waves of water are pounding the thatch houses and the palace of Cinq, uncertain in their purpose as thunder crashes overhead in time with the waves along the coast.

What year is it? What day? It's difficult to remember now. I pick up the calendar and toy with the paper. It's too old to be correct. Ah, here's the new one…It's A.C. 204, sometime in late May. That makes it seven years since it all started, a little more. I used to be able to remember dates so accurately, tell you what hour they happened, even…everything's changed. I feel so alone.

I'm sure this would have happened even if I hadn't been sent to prison. It wasn't a huge surprise, and the war criminals were housed separately. I was fortunate as well…I served only two of a seven-year term. I probably wouldn't have been much saner if I had been out in public anyway.

Preventers dissolved after the end of the trials. I remember hearing the department would be absorbed into something else. It hurt then…I was in prison at that time as well. It hurt like hell knowing I wouldn't have something solid to return to. But what did I expect? Lady Une was dead; she wasn't there to keep up the bureaucratic fight like she always did. God I miss her.

The therapist they assigned to all the prisoners would bug me about that. Ask me why I was still unable to sleep even after they pumped me so full of drugs it would have been toxic if I weren't used to it from my days in OZ. I told her a few weeks after I got out, I know she helped a good deal for my parole. No one trusted me…I supposed I owed enough to her to satisfy her curiosity.

I'd been silent on the phone for a few moments before responding. When I did I know I shocked her, although she could have thought…

"What keeps me up so much at night," I'd said, "is several things, always the same. It was watching one of my best friends be executed by firing squad. That in itself wasn't so bad, but I had to watch her try to _smile_ at her daughter, because she was there, watching her mother be killed… And then five months later having to ID that girl's body when they pulled her out of a river, drowned, on one of her paternal relative's estates. Then the last thing…it was remembering that day here in Cinq, when I left to attend a meeting knowing that when I came back my husband would be dead…and I left anyway."

I hadn't waited for her falsely sympathetic answer, hanging up and disconnecting the comm unit on my desk. I'd finally been able to sleep that night - but my sleep was plagued with nightmares.

A flash of thunder hit a tree ten yards from my window; I barely flinched at the sound and sight of it. It was so irrelevant now…

Zechs had killed himself in the next room, here in the palace. I don't know how he did it; when I came home that evening it was almost as if he were asleep, after having finished the book in his hands. I don't think he wanted me to know how he killed himself…I don't think I want to know. We'd been married…had been after the appeals failed. Almost like a final proof to put on paper before he died. I'd known for a long while.

He'd done it a week before his trial. Most thought the act cowardly. I wasn't really sure what to think…when asked, I would answer flatly, "Let the dead bury the dead."

I suppose it applies.

Lady Une had been found guilty of nearly all of the charges against her, and I know they weren't all. She didn't hide or distort a thing, told of every crime she had ever committed and then expected no clemency for it. That had been why the public had such divided opinions about her punishment - she was _admitting_ guilt, and expecting nothing. That was also why her trial was the most horrible of all.

In the end they'd decided to execute her. It had been painful when she asked me to help fulfill her last request. She wanted to die by a firing squad - a soldier's death.

I'd spoken to the head judge, Christina Novellum. She'd sighed, taken her glasses off, and spoke frankly as a human being.

"I respect her work, but we all consider her guilty. However, seeing as the crimes she is guilty of are crimes of an overzealous soldier, I'm sure I can convince them to let her die in that manner."

Zechs and I had to take care of Mariemaia while Une was in prison…we'd had her for possibly six months. The Mars Project had been entirely halted, the base practically abandoned. In the end, four years after the original charges in A.C. 197, she'd insisted on attending the execution; I felt later that had been the poor child's breaking point.

All 58 crimes, ranging from battery of a subordinate to orders causing civilian massacres, had been read before Une was killed, taking up nearly twenty painful minutes. There were five in the firing squad, two women and three men. The one with the bullet had been one of my cadets, I recognized him nearly automatically. I frequently wondered how he felt to be shooting the woman he had been taught to obey right along with Treize Khushrenada and their instructors.

Mariemaia hadn't cried when Une was shot. But I could see the anguish in her face, held her hand tightly and watched Zechs flinch when the guns were fired. Mariemaia had been shuffled around the homes of some of her father's relatives for a few months. Zechs and I could have possibly taken care of her; we were too busy dealing with the very lawsuits that had killed her mother.

Five months later they pulled her from a river at her great-aunt's home. They didn't have her dental records; I had to I.D. her. It was one of the most traumatizing things from the trials that I had to see. The government never had officially deemed it a suicide, just an accident. But they all knew.

Appeals for the amnesty and the beginning trials had taken three years. Sentences were summarily carried out in the next two…the justice system was so hopelessly inept they'd had to deal with everything quickly. I don't think many people could have been saved through appeals, certainly not Lady Une. There was nothing that could have convinced the Tribunal after their final sentence.

My own sentencing had also been accurate. Most of us were guilty, few were merely caught a long. I must commend the Tribunal in how efficiently they split the units up. The top officials were charged individually. OZ as a whole was charged in their units; the Alliance was charged as branches. The Federation was charged through ranks.

I remember one of my most serious charges was something I had talked vehemently about with Zechs the night of the amnesty trial, the violations of the Convention on the Rights of a Child.

I hadn't denied any of it.

If there was one thing General Treize Khushrenada had left his officers permanently ingrained with, it was to be honorable. Even the most despised and immoral of officers had told the complete truth on the stand. But along with Zechs, many had also committed suicide before they ever came to trial.

Sally had been acquitted. I haven't been able to find her or her partner Wufei. She hasn't been avoiding me, I know that…it's almost as if she dropped off the edge of the colonies. I don't know what happened.

Relena had picked me up when I got out. I've been here at Cinq for the past two weeks or so. She was tired, and even worse off than when I'd last seen her outside. Heero Yuy was still in prison.

I toy with the archaic, pretty gun in my hands, examining something I could see with my eyes closed. 

Zechs had given it to me long ago, when I "lost" the decorative issue I'd received - the equivalent of the gold watch of old, something officers considered a possession to be proud of. He'd laughed when I told him, much to my annoyance.

A week later, after he'd left the base, he'd sent me a birthday present, well, two. The first was this gun. I knew it had been his, never asked where he'd gotten it from. Zechs had included the note: "I won't be offended if you 'lose' this one as well." Of course he'd known that would only make me take better care of it.I don't remember the second.

"How, ah, thoughtful…" Relena had stammered when I'd explained the weapon's origin, several years ago, when I was merely her guardian and not even officially resigned from OZ. When OZ still existed.

It's loaded, I know it is. My hand tightens around the trigger, a familiar position even as I haven't seen it in two years.

"Oneesan," Relena had started to tell me.

"I'm not your sister anymore, Relena-sama…"

"Maybe not legally. And my brother is dead. But I won't stop calling you that, oneesan. I wanted to let you know I'm fine by myself. Normally I would try to dissuade someone I consider a sister from this…but I understand. I won't, trust in that, but I won't stop you. I understand."

Does she really? No, she doesn't lie…even if she doesn't, she believes she does. It's quite possible Relena already understands.

I hesitate as I look over the familiar instrument of death again, and realize I don't care. I really don't.

The shot fires.

Yes well...I'm fully aware I killed most of the characters. Oh yeah, and if anyone wants to know what happened to the Gundam pilots I oh-so-conveniently forgot...I'll write a second epilogue, but you have to ask for it. (I don't like them that much, so I suppose it was arbitrary amnesia.) 


	5. Epilogue Duo (Two)

A/N: I'm breaking literary convention, but since when have we fanfic writers cared about that? ^_^ It's brief and less introspective than informational, but that was the point...

I switched off the news in disgust, wondered if I should call Relena. Hilde nearly slammed the door; the idea something else awful happened…I didn't need to deal with that.

"Duo, you hear the news?" Hilde asked, stuffed her jacket in the closet. When the small comm unit on her wrist wouldn't come off, she angrily tore at it before giving up.

"Which one?" I sighed, helping her unattach the unit. "Ojousan won't be doing too great…"

"I can't believe Noin would have done that, she was only out two weeks." Hilde grimaced. "How insinuating was the version you heard? God, we didn't know her that well, but still…"

"The whole thing led back to everyone's favorite ex-Peacecrafts."

"She was married to one."

"That's why."

"They could at least show some respect for the dead…and their living relative."

I rolled my eyes, at the situation, not Hilde. "It's the media's job to desecrate everything humanly possible. Didn't you see how they had a field day with the war crimes trials? It's been barely a year and they dredge it up with her suicide…of all people…"

She frowned, hesitated before speaking. "We were fortunate. You had nothing and I was barely fined for battery of a prisoner - seeing as you were the prisoner…"

I smirked in trademark style, ruffled her short hair. "You're right, we were. Speak to Stella or Heero recently?"

"Stella called last night…said her parole was coming up. I still don't get why her entire unit wasn't acquitted…Sally Po's branch was. She was Federation*, not OZ, sure, but still-"

"Hey, hey," I chided. "Don't worry about the past; we did that often enough during the trials. Tomorrow we'll drop in on Relena whether she wants us to or not, and then go bother Quatre while we're there."

"All the way in L4?" Hilde blanched. "Have you forgotten where we live?"

"No, he was near Cinq at Romefeller Headquarters, helping that Catalonia girl." The 'again' was silent. The Tribunal had left Quatre alone, something about prior civil reimbursement. He and "that Catalonia girl" weren't married - not even dating last I checked. Instead they were a creepy kind of siblings, even living together now.

Trowa had served maybe six months for his stint in OZ. Wufei was such an honor freak he didn't heave anything on him. Of all of us, only Heero went to trial. If I thought about it, he should have been completing his minimum sentence soon…hopefully he would be released.

The trials were another type of war for us. It wasn't quite as sanguinary as the Federation or Eve Wars…not many died in the war with the Mariemaia Army. But people still died in this one, had their lives ruined: in the case of many, not for the first time.

I often thought the Earth Sphere would have been much better off if the trials had never occurred. Preventers had dissipated because of them - chief executed and some of their best officers dead by their own hands. Many others were still imprisoned, and would be for a long time.

Important people, people that could have stabilized the ESUN much sooner than the seven years it took, were lost to this war. A war where soldiers could not fight, a war where there were no victors even in name.

A war where the God of Death was frowned upon.

* Far as I can tell, the Federation and the Alliance are one and the same, and the wording difference is caused only by translation variants.

Well, what'd you think? [Email][1] me, or if this is FFN just review. 

   [1]: mailto:lucrezia_noin9@gundamwing.net



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